


The Mistletoe Helped

by mally710555



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Christmas Decorations, First Kiss, M/M, Mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:54:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29282571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mally710555/pseuds/mally710555
Summary: It's winter break and everyone has gone home for the holidays, except Steve and Tony. Tony didn't plan on going home, but he returns to his and Steve's apartment to find Steve there too. Since they aren't going home, they decide to do Christmas together, but can Tont contain his feelings Steve this holiday season?
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Kudos: 7
Collections: POTS (18+) Stony Stocking 2020





	The Mistletoe Helped

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Askafroa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Askafroa/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [Askafroa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Askafroa/pseuds/Askafroa) in the [stony_stocking_2020](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/stony_stocking_2020) collection. 



> Thank you to Cookie who beta'd for me! So thankful for her!

It was winter break in their third year of college, and Tony was surprised to see Steve in the apartment when he got home from the store. "Steve? What are you doing here? Why didn't you go home?"

Steve looked at him as he leaned back on the couch. "No one's gonna be there. Ma went to see her sister and she said she wouldn't be back for a few weeks. The hospital was generous enough to give her time off for the holidays and she wanted to use it."

"Why didn't you go with her?"

Steve gave him a confused look. "She left when we were still taking finals. Do you want me to leave that badly?"

Tony felt himself blush as he lifted his hands.

"No that's not it at all! I was just confused." Steve sighed as he leaned back further. "I could have stayed with Bucky, but his sister is coming home and I didn't want to intrude on that.” He smiled at Tony. “So what about you? Why aren't you home?"

Tony winced a little. He could have sworn that he’d told Steve about his rocky relationship with his father. "Dear old dad didn't want me home this time around. Mom said she would send me something for Christmas before she and dad went away to wherever they're going this year."

Steve frowned and patted the cushion next to him, gesturing for Tony to sit down. He moved over to sit, and Steve turned on the TV. "Well, looks like it's gonna be just the two of us for Christmas then."

Christmas was about a week and a half away and Tony hadn't really given much thought to it. He had planned on spending it like any other day, working on blueprints for his robots and other projects, but now that Steve was here – Steve, his gorgeous, kind, and super-muscular roommate – everything had changed.

They spent a few moments in silence, watching whatever was on the TV. Tony didn't really pay any attention to it, breaking the silence after a short while. "So, since we're gonna be here for Christmas, do you want to maybe, I don't know...getatreeorsomething?" 

Steve turned to look at Tony, who had looked away to hide the blush on his face. "What was that? I didn't catch that last part."

"I said, do you want to maybe...get a tree or something to decorate the apartment?" He was clearer this time, slowly turning his head to look at Steve's reaction. He was greeted with sparkling eyes and a warm smile.

"Sure! That sounds fantastic actually! We can decorate the whole place – if that's ok with you." Steve's cheeks were a little pink, embarrassed that he was so overly excited, and Tony just laughed.

"Sure big guy, let's decorate the place. It’ll be nice to have more decorations in here." Steve smiled again and turned back towards the TV. Tony got up to put the groceries away, and he pondered where he was in his life right now, and how he’d gotten here.

He had this nice apartment with Steve, who didn't even go to the same school as him. He was introduced to Steve when he and Rhodey went to a bar and met Bucky, who Rhodey knew from basic training.

Steve hadn’t wanted to live on campus anymore since he couldn't get the girls to stop following him, and Tony was told he couldn't sleep in the lab anymore. They ended up getting an apartment together in the middle of Boston, between M.I.T and Boston University.

Tony fell for him instantly. Not just because he was a gorgeous man, but he could tell from the way he and Bucky interacted that night at the bar that he had a winning personality.

"When do you want to go shopping Tony?" Tony snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Steve call. He finished putting the groceries away and went back to the living room, leaving his coat behind on the rack. 

"Maybe this weekend? I have some projects I want to try and get done before Saturday." Steve rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Tony, school is over for the semester. You can chill out on the work right now. No one would blame you if you did."

Tony chuckled a little and shook his head. "This isn’t for school Steve, it’s for me. I'm trying to build my own personal robot. I just have to get the right formulas and schematics and then I'll be set to build."

Steve got up and put his hand in Tony's. "Just tell me you're getting enough sleep. I don't want to have you pass out on me in the mall again." Tony laughed when he remembered the last time they’d gone shopping together, and he had just gotten off of one of his work binges during the semester. He had just dropped in the middle of the store and the old lady who worked there thought he was having a seizure or something.

"I am sleeping. I'm getting at least five and a half hours of sleep a night... I think?" His questioning tone didn't please Steve, but Tony was more focused on the fact that Steve was still holding his hands. He was blushing like a tomato, which made Steve even more concerned.

"Tony, are you alright? Your face is turning red." He moved one of his hands to feel Tony’s forehead, and Tony moved away quickly. "I'm fine! Just... tired is all! I think I'm going to turn in early for once. Good night Steve, sleep well!" Tony ran to his room and shut the door behind him.

Steve stood in the middle of the room with a confused look on his face, and Tony was in his room freaking out, trying to gather his thoughts.

The weekend came around and they decided to go on Sunday instead of Saturday. Christmas was only a week away, and they didn't know if they were going to be able to get quality decorations anywhere.

"So, do you want to get decorations first or do you want to find a tree? I know a good tree farm in the area. Bucky and I found it last year when he and his girlfriend were looking for a tree." Tony hadn’t known that Bucky had a girlfriend, and he was mildly shocked by the news. Well, he’d just have to ask Steve about her later.

"Let's get the decorations. I don't want your car to be a mess of pine needles for very long."

"It would be no problem at all, but I see where you're coming from. We need to get the stuff needed to keep a tree in the apartment."

Tony didn't really know what went into the care of a Christmas tree. Jarvis would get the tree every year, along with a few servants. It was always really big and Tony never put much thought into where it would come from.

"So what kind of lights do you want? White? Colorful? Mix of both?" Tony thought about it for a second. He remembered that his family always put up white lights with golden colored every year, and he wanted to change it up.

"Lets go colorful. I want everything to be bright. We could buy some lights to put around the apartment too. We'll be the brightest apartment in the building!" Tony was genuinely getting excited about this, but his sudden outburst made him blush and dial it back when he saw Steve looking at him. It was a fond look, but it turned into confusion when Tony looked away.

"Alright, so we're gonna go colorful. Sounds good to me! Let’s go check some of the stores to see if they have anything we need." They went to some of the stores that they thought would have what they needed. They got a few boxes of lights, and several different types of ornaments at multiple different stores. They also decided to get a wreath for their front door to show their festiveness, and some garlands as well. While Steve was looking at tree supplies, Tony saw a little mistletoe laying on one of the shelfs. He quickly pulled out his phone and texted Rhodey.

_ Should I get this for our apartment??? _

_ I don't know man, do you want to kiss Steve? _

He rolled his eyes and quickly typed away on his phone.

_ You know I do, but I'm not gonna come out and say it. That's embarrassing! _

_ You're embarrassing sometimes. Look, just get it and hang it up somewhere he won't see it. If he happens to walk under it with you, point it out casually and be like, oh who put that up there? you know what I mean? _

Tony nodded to himself and responded,  _ ok I think I got it. Thanks Rhodeybear xoxoxo. _ Rhodey sent back a kissy face with an eye-rolling emoji and Tony just laughed. He didn't want Steve to see the mistletoe, so he quickly purchased it and stuck it in his pocket. He casually moved back over to where Steve was and looked at the stuff he picked out. "Do we really need all of this?"

"Not all of it, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. Come on, let's go check out and then we can go to the tree farm." They moved up to the register to pay for their things and went on their way.

They moved out of the city, and into the middle of nowhere Steve drove them to a farm that looked suspiciously like a ranch, set in the middle of the snow with a whole bunch of pine trees and a sign that said Christmas Tree Lane. They got out of the truck and made their way over to the gate.

"Hello there! Wwe would like to get a tree." Steve stated to the man at the gate..

"Smaller trees are 25 dollars, the medium ones are 40, and large ones are 65 dollars. Let me go get you an axe." The man turned and walked towards the barn to get an axe while Steve and Tony waited there.

"What size tree do you think will fit in our apartment?" Steve looked at Tony while he was trying to warm his hands up.

"Are your hands cold, Tony?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I forgot to bring my gloves with me. But back to your question, I think a medium tree would fit. Maybe on the sma–" Tony stopped talking when Steve grabbed his hands.

"My hands are always warm so I'll share my heat with you." Steve must have not thought anything of it, holding Tony's hands, but a blush rose to Tony's face so quickly that he was afraid Steve would notice and think he was weird.

"Here you boys are, just sharpened this one earlier when a rush of people came by. Just holler and I'll be over to help ya move it if it's too heavy." The man handed Steve the axe as he let go of Tony's hands.

"Thank you very much. Come on, let's go pick one." Steve went ahead of Tony, probably because he knew the place better, and they started looking around.

They ignored the larger ones all together because they knew those trees wouldn't fit into their apartment. Some of the small ones were in fact  _ very  _ small – they could almost pass for a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. The medium ones came in a variety of shapes and sizes, some short but wide, and others taller and thinner.

"Oh how about this one, Steve?" Tony pointed to a tree that he envisioned being perfect in their apartment. When Steve turned and looked at it, he gave a nod of approval. "Yes, this is the one. Now stand over there so I don't accidently hurt you." Tony moved to the side as Steve got into position to chop it down. He swung the axe right into the tree, and Tony couldn't stop staring at his arms. The coat that Steve was wearing was a little tight, and Tony was afraid that if he used any more of his muscles, the coat would rip.

He was snapped out of his daze when he heard the tree hit the ground. "There we go. Can you help me move it Tony?"

"Huh? Oh sure."

Together, they managed to get it back to the truck. Steve pulled out his wallet to pay for the tree, and they were soon on their way back to their apartment. Their apartment was on the third floor, so they asked a neighnour who just happened to be passing by, if he could help them lift the tree up the stairs. When it was all situated on the floor of their apartment, they made another trip down to get the bags, carrying them all so they didn't have to make two trips.

"Alright, so where do we start?" Tony had sorted the bags so they knew where everything was, but Steve looked down at the tree.

"I think we should do this first. Real trees can be messy and we have to check it out in case there’s something in it."

"Is that why you bought all that bug stuff?"

Steve nodded. "We can't decorate it just yet because we have to make sure, but I want to get it off the ground at least. Where should we put it?"

Tony looked around, trying to figure out the best place for the tree. "I think by those two windows, right in between them."

Working together and using the directions, they assembled the tree stand and sprayed the tree out with the different sprays. "So we have to let that sit for a day?"

"Yeah, that's what the internet says. We can just set it up in the dining room since we don't use it."

They moved it over behind the table and started to organize their other decorations on the coffee table. Tony pulled out the little bag of the mistletoe out of his pocket and quietly moved to the kitchen. He pulled over a chair to reach the overhang in the passageway connecting the kitchen and dining room. It took a few minutes for Tony to figure out how to hang it, but when he was all done, he got off the chair, pushed it back into the table and moved over to where Steve was sorting the ornaments. "Are those all the ornaments we got?"

"Yeah, the lights are in those bags over there. Do you want to hang some around the apartment?" Tony nodded and moved over to the other bags to look at the lights. They had gotten different kinds of lights, both white and colorful. The white ones were to put on the tree, and the colored ones were going around the apartment. There was also some garlands that were going up with the lights.

They started working around the doorway, moving into the hallway and going around the living room and the dining room. When they were about to start in the kitchen, Steve stopped for a second, confused.

"Tony, where did this come from?" He pointed to the mistletoe that Tony hung up a few minutes ago. Tony blushed – this was his chance. A Stark never missed an opportunity when it presented itself, so when Steve turned to look down at him, Tony stood on his tiptoes and kissed him right on the lips.

Tony’s eyes were shut, so he couldn't see the pure excitement in Steve's eyes. In response to Tony kissing him, he wrapped his arms around his waist, pulling him closer. Their tongues were dancing together, fighting for dominance, but Steve won ultimately, setting the pace.

After a few minutes they pulled away for air.

"When did you get that?"

"While you were looking at tree stuff...I snuck to the register to buy it..."

Steve looked back up to the mistletoe then back down to him. "Do you want to go back and get more?"

Tony looked at him in surprise, realizing what Steve was suggesting. "How long have you felt the same way?"

They moved over to the couch to sit down for a moment. "If I'm being honest, since Rhodey and Bucky introduced us. You were just so mesmerizing in that instant, I swore my heart skipped a beat." The blush that was previously present on Tony's face grew to his ears. "So I kind of lied,” Steve continued. “My ma  _ is _ going to visit her sister, but she isn't staying that long. I just wanted a chance to spend Christmas with you."

"Why didn't you just say so?"

It was Steve's turn to blush now. "I was afraid you didn't feel the same."

"You're silly. We're honestly both stupid." They shared a laugh and then sat in silence.

"So, my offer still stands. Do you want to go buy more?" Tony smirked at him, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Merry Christmas to us." Steve smiled and they gathered their coats to go buy more mistletoe. 


End file.
